Thing #4

Commenting helps to create a sense of community because it -is- the community. Without comments there is no exchange of ideas. Without comments there are no new opinions or feedback. A blog without comments is just an online journal. I found the "Be Controversial?" technique helpful and the idea that not responding to comment could be a form elitism. I love to put controversial news articles onto my SarahLiz.info site to see what other people's opinions are. This may be a bit more dangerous for your class website since parents can be (sometimes) easily offended.

I chose to comment on fellow students' blogs of people I actually interact with during class time. I think this helps because I have already been introduced to the person. I can put a face to the opinions and voice behind the words. I commented on Kelsi Clark's blog, Alex Hilton's blog, Catherine Barlow's blog, Samantha Fargis' blog, and Andrea Watt's blog.

For the non-student blogs I commented on Literacy and Laughter's post about their Book Lovers Bash and on 2nd Grade Stuff's post on Classroom Dojo (A classroom management app).

I think that I may be in love with the Classroom Dojo app. I commenting on the post about how I think it could be used to inform parents of their student's behaviors in class. I all looked at some of the other comments and found that several of the teacher's that used it loved it. On the Book Lovers Bash post I commented about how I liked to contrast of being rewarded for doing a good job on a quiet activity could be rewarded by allowing them a very active and noisy activity - like a dance party.
57314
I commented on a different thing of each of my fellow students. I wanted to pick some that I felt I could offer some assistance on and a new perspective. I tried to ask at least one question in each comment to try and encourage a reply and help build a connection. I think that it is very important to ask for feedback when you are giving a person feedback. It's great to know if what you said helped or if the connection you were hoping to make failed so that you can learn and grow and try different methods.
-On Kelsi's I commented on her thing 5 about school 2.0 and the possibly that good, traditional practices might fade away in favor of technology.
-On Alex's I commented on her thing 7 about various methods of learning and creating stories from random pictures.
-On Catherine's I commented on her thing 3 about how much I liked her idea of using a student run blog about school difficulties. I also warned about relying too much on student guidance and to remember that you are the leader.
-On Samantha's  I commented on her thing 1 about how context clues have influenced my confidence in absorbing the right/important material. I asked if she thought her lack of confidence might be a gap in her early education, and something teacher's might should stress to their students to learn.
-On Andrea's I commented on her thing 4 about how I view my internet identity as separate or as only a small portion of my true identity and how that assists me in my management of my blog.

Thing #6 - WordPress

Back in 2009 CNET hosted a contest for the most useful websites/apps. I chose Wordpress from the list of 100 sites. Winner: WordPress.com

I chose this winner because over this past summer break (2012) I wanted to make my own website. So, my husband added my new domain to his account and I began to add different posts about my son or news stories that caught my eye. I was hoping to include research that I found interesting once the semester began. I find that the WordPress system has a lot of options, and I like the interface. My website isn't everything that I want it to be quite yet, but I do really like it. I find it easier to use than the blogger system, but that may just because because I started with WordPress first. The most useful feature is the plugin finder. You can search by the most popular the find what everyone has for the backbone of their website design, or you can search for something specific that you may need for one particular need.

If you are interested here is a link to my website

Thing #3

I would like to use my blog both reflectively and for classroom use. I think the a blog would be a great place to reflect on teaching methods, and student growth (although not using names of students). I would also love to have supplemental materials of the class on my blog. I would never want to make it the sole source of certain material though. There are going to be students without access at home, and I would hate to feel like they are missing out because I chose a path they they could not access. So, I would have to very carefully consider what to put on the site for the class, and if there are other methods available to all students.

Thing #2

Creating this blog was a little difficult for me. I have been trying to learn the WordPress system since I started my own website this summer in hopes of learning how to use it to get ahead of the curve for my future as a educator. I know that I want to have a classroom website, but I haven't really figured out what I want it to look like yet. If you would like to see my website I made over the summer it is at sarahliz. (www.sarahliz.info) So, the process of learning another website's design and skeleton system has been a bit of a challenge for me because I confuse the two systems. Also, the avatar was extremely frustrating, mostly because i am unhappy with the very light shade of brown that I found. I attempted to make an avatar that resembled me, but my hair and my eyes are very dark. I chose the accessorize my avatar with a stack of books, because I love reading. Choosing a title, a web address, and posting my really name was fairly simple though. I don't really see any point in anonymity for a beginner's website (especially one that I am making for school), and I really love my sarahliz concept- so I thought I would just carry it over into this project.